"Ah, there she is!"
A familiar voice reached Jade's ears, just as she was on her way over to the Inuzuka compound. She turned around, a warm smile taking place on her lips, "Kiba."
The boy ran up to her, his nin-dog by his side. He stopped in front of her, grinning madly, "Missed you last night. When'd you get back?"
"Um..." she could feel her cheeks slowly heating up. "I'm not...Late." She smiled weakly.
"I stayed up waiting for you. Hana was getting really mad!" he said, laughing as he scratched his head.
"You did?" she asked in surprise.
He nodded, his canine-like teeth peeking out over his bottom lip a little, "I didn't think you'd get back so late."
She quickly brushed his cheek with her thumb, "Your teeth, Kiba." She giggled quietly as he raised an eyebrow, "My teeth?" His eyes filled with realization, and he licked his lips, his teeth going back to hiding.
"So where were you heading?" he asked her, looking off in the direction she was previously walking.
"I was on my way over to your house," she replied, putting a hand to her cheek to try and hide her faint blush.
"Heh, me and Akamaru have been looking for you all morning," Kiba told her. "We stopped by your house, but your kasaan said you stepped out." He made a face, "She could of told me where..." Akamaru barked; it sounded irritated.
"That's my kasaan for you..."
"So, hey, how did your mission go?" he asked her, changing the subject. Akamaru sat quietly by his master, wagging his tail, waiting to hear the reply.
"It went fine..." she said flatly, before shooting her eyes downcast. "On our way back, though, we bumped into this woman named Kitai."
"What happened?" Kiba asked, in a concerned tone. The way Jade's expression had changed at the mention, told him something must of gone wrong.
"..." her dry lips parted to start her sentence. "She and her wolves attacked us."
"Wolves?" Kiba's eyes widened a little, before asking, "Did you get hurt? Are you okay?" He quickly sniffed her, then lifted her arm, inspecting her. He circled her, like an animal circling it's prey.
"I'm fine, Kiba," she laughed at his behaviour. "Sure, a few scratches here and there...But nothing serious."
Kiba released a relieved breath, and crossed his arms, "You said she and her wolves attacked you?"
"Yeah."
"...Wolves?" he raised an eyebrow.
"It's kinda like your family and dogs..." she pointed out. He glanced down at Akamaru, who was scratching behind his ear.
"Enough about my mission..." she pointed a finger at the dog-like boy, who had his head bowed in thought. "How was your mission?" she asked.
"Huh?" he looked up, her question breaking his thoughts, "What was that...?"
"Your mission. How was it?"
He made a face, "Boring." She showed a sympathetic frown.
He sighed, and smiled softly, before his ears perked up a little. He turned around slowly, Shino coming towards him. Jade blinked a few times, then felt uneasy. Shino always kind of freaked her out, and she wasn't really friends with him. Akamaru whimpered, his ears flopping.
"You're late," Shino stated calmly, perching in front of Kiba, who only groaned. Shino continued, "You're late. Kurenai Sensei is waiting."
"Team Seven got to fight off wolves!" Kiba interjected, grinning.
"Kiba..." Jade sighed.
Shino didn't say anything for a few minutes, then simply turned and walked away, "You have ten seconds."
"...Minutes?" Kiba asked hopefully, as Akamaru hopped onto his head.
"Ten seconds," Shino repeated, continuing on his way.
"I'll see you later," Kiba said quickly, abruptly grabbing Jade's wrist and pulling her body close to his, engulfing her in a hug. Her heart skipped a beat, and she was afraid that it would stop all together. He didn't know what he did to her.
"Bye!" he called, having broken away from her. He and Akamaru ran after Shino, as Jade watched them, wearing an expression she herself couldn't even describe. It was a cross between love, admiration and sadness. These feelings just wouldn't go away.
"Oi, we have training, Jade-chan!" a familiar voice chimed, from behind Jade, breaking her trance. She turned around to face Naruto, "Right. I knew that."
"Well, come on then!" he said, taking her hand and dragging her down the street. He sniffed the air a little, then let go of her hand to pinch his nose, "You smell like dog." She gave him a flat expression, and he groaned, "Let me guess... Kiba was just here."
"You're mean."
"Sorry," he said, extending the 'O' in the word, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. He turned a corner, heading towards the appointed location for training.
"Why in such a hurry?" she asked him flatly. "Kakashi Sensei's always late, anyway."
"What's gotten into you?" Naruto stopped and turned around, knocking on her head, "Jade-chan? You in there somewhere?"
She pushed his hand off, "Just in an off mood, today... I guess." She finished lamely, Kiba's touch still lingering on her body.
Naruto blinked a bit from beside her, before proceeding to ask, "What happened?"
"Nothing, Naruto."
"Did he do something to hurt you?" he asked, referring to Kiba.
"Sort of..." she murmured in a response, walking a little ahead of the blonde. One simple hug. It wasn't her fault that she had fallen so hard for Kiba, was it? Almost everything he did charmed her, intoxicated her. She adored him. He made her sigh in admiration, he gave her a funny feeling in her tummy.
When she was smaller, she didn't like Kiba as anything more than a close friend. That was the time that she had, had a puppy love crush on Sasuke.
Competition for his acknowledgement began to bother her, and she decided to give up on him - she hadn't liked him that much, anyway. Sure he was pretty good looking, and she admired his skills, but her crush moved onto Kiba. Only to grow into something so much bigger.
Years of this. It was taunting, in a way.
Her response floated in the air for a little bit, until Naruto said, "We have to fight Kakashi Sensei, today."
"Can't wait."
"Maybe you can talk him out of it? I'm beat."
Jade gasped lightly, "What? The next Hokage is beat? Impossible!"
Naruto laughed, "We all have our limits."
"Yours is abnormal."
"Good morning, children."
The two genin looked up to meet the gaze of the Hokage. He smiled at them, lifting his hand to wave, "Off to training, I see."
Jade and Naruto nodded in unison, before Jade said, "We have to fight Sensei, today."
"Sounds like a challenge. Kakashi is very skillfull," Hokage replied.
Naruto nodded again, "He's real strong!"
"If you defeat him, I'm sure that you'll feel awfully proud of yourself," the Hokage tipped his hat lighty, before walking off, hands clasped behind his back, his robes billowing in the soft breeze.
"I hope you'll be nice to the genin when you're Hokage, Naruto," Jade said softly, as she and her blonde friend made their way over to the training grounds.
"Of course," he smiled. She had always believed in him. Sure, she thought he could be a little annoying at times, and sometimes she might hit him once in a while, but she was like a best friend to him.
As the two genin entered the training grounds, they spotted Sasuke sharpening his kunai knives.
"Hi, Sasuke," Jade greeted, casting a shadow down on him.
"Hn."
"Jerk..." Naruto muttered to himself, not being able to help it.
"Likewise."
Jade sighed, and only hoped that Kakashi Sensei would get there soon. As the two boys continued to bicker, Jade seated herself down by a random post. She stared at her hands for a little while, until making a hand sign. Then another, and another. Soon, she had gone through all of them. She released a bored sigh, blocking Naruto and Sasuke's newest argument out of her mind. She reached into her shuriken hold, and took out a few shuriken, throwing them in the boys direction.
"Oi!" Naruto jumped out of the way, stumbling and falling back. "What was that!? Jade-chan!?"
She giggled to herself, quickly taking her hand out of her shuriken hold.
"You're immature," Sasuke stated, making her glare a little. She stuck her tongue out at him, which made Naruto snicker.
"Morning."
A voice the three knew all too well was heard, and they looked up to see Kakashi perched on a branch in a nearby tree. He waved to them, a smile plastered on his face, "Sorry I'm late. An eagle dropped from the sky and-."
"You're late!" Jade and Naruto accused, angry looks on their faces as they pointed up at him. Kakashi giggled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck, before jumping down to join his students. "So, I see that we're all here and accounted for." They all nodded, bored expressions on their faces. Kakashi nodded back at them, and placed his hands on his hips, "For training today, you'll all be fighting me. Together." He eyed Naruto and Sasuke as he said the last part, "Use teamwork."
Sasuke rolled his eyes, and Naruto grunted in annoyance.
"Well, when you're ready..." Kakashi told them. As soon as he spoke, Naruto lunged forward, fist raised. He released a battle cry, and threw his punch. Kakashi easily caught it, and held it there as he reached into his pouch for Make-out Paradise.
'I hate when he does that,' Jade thought, running off to hide somwhere. She leapt into a tree, keeping a low profile. She peeked out from behind the leaves and branches, to see Naruto throwing random kicks and punches at Kakashi. 'Naruto never changes...' she thought, smiling to herself.
She felt extra weight on the branch she was crouched on, and turned around.
'Oh, shoot!' her eyes widened. She almost fell out of the tree, but she managed to keep her posture.
"Boo," Kakashi said quietly, eyes curved into a smile. Jade blinked at him, before glancing back down at Naruto. The Kakashi he was fighting disappeared in a poof of smoke, leaving a log.
'Logged...' Jade thought, a blank expression on her face. She turned back to face her Sensei, who was holding a kunai in his hand.
"You always were the best in teamwork," Kakashi said. "What're you doing here alone?"
"Well, I can't work out a plan in under ten seconds!" she replied cooly, slipping out of the tree. She ran past a confused Naruto, who was currently looking for his Sensei. She didn't really know where she was going, but she needed to get away from Kakashi so that she could work out a strategy. It was something she had picked up from Shikamaru. At least, that was what she assumed. But she had always believed in teamwork. She liked to think that teamwork was key, despite the fact that Kakashi had said that once.
She froze instantly, seeing Kakashi standing inches in front of her, "Surprise!"
Her right eye twitched a little, before she threw a kick at him. He caught her ankle, and flipped her, making her land on her knees. Her knees were always a weaker point, and Kakashi knew that.
"Targeting the knees is dangerous, Sensei," she told him, beginning to pick herself up.
"Did I hurt you that bad?" he questioned her, tauntingly.
She shook her head, recovering from the fall and throwing a punch. Kakashi dodged, by simply leaning out of the way. She narrowed her eyes slightly, launching another kick - which Kakashi caught again. Using this to his advantage, he lifted her up, dangling her from her ankle.
She flailed her arms a little, the gravity pulling down on her hair, the blood rushing to her head.
Kakashi chuckled, "That was fun."
"Was?" Jade repeated, lifting her head up ever so slightly to catch a better glimpse of her Sensei. He smiled from underneath his mask, before releasing her ankle. She fell to the ground with a thud. While she was down, Kakashi jumped off, in search of Sasuke, who he had yet to fight.
Jade sat up and rubbed her head, searching for the huge lump that should be there. But she didn't find it, thank goodness.
Suddenly, something whizzed past her, making her hair blow all over the place. She covered her face with her arms for protection, and when she felt whatever it was had passed by, she looked up.
Kiba crouched in front of Akamaru, patting his head. He turned to see Jade and grinned, "Oh, hey!"
"What're you doing out here?" she asked, picking herself up and waking over to him.
"Well, training," he replied, standing up and looking around and finding himself in a different place from where he had started. "I didn't mean to come this far, though." Then he grinned, Jade's heart slowly skipping a beat as he did. "But I'm glad I did."
She smiled, a blush creeping onto her cheeks, "Well, I'm glad you did, too." She got down on her knees, patting Akamaru.
"So what're you doing?" he inquired, also crouching down and beginning to pat his dog, too. His rough hand brushed lightly against her small one, as she drew it back, "Uh, training..."
"What happened to your knees?" he asked suddenly, his eyes trailing down to her slightly battered knees. She covered them with her hands, surprised he had noticed, "Uh, Kakashi Sensei."
"D'you wanna do something later?"
His question hit her immediately, "Like what?"
"I don't know," he shrugged, as Jade ruffled Akamaru's ears. "Whatever you wanna do."
"I guess we could go to Ichiraku after training," she said, thoughtfully. "Get something to eat."
"Sounds good," he smiled, snapping his fingers and catching Akamaru's attention who leapt into his jacket. "I'll meet you there. See ya, Jade-chan."
"Bye, Kiba," she said, as he leapt into the trees, leaving her by herself again. She looked around her surroundings, not even remembering where she had come from.
With a fat sweatdrop rolling down her face, she quietly called out, "Um...Kakashi Sensei! Can you come get me?"
oOo
"You...seem quiet," Kiba pointed out later that day, sitting with Jade at Ichiraku as two bowls of ramen were placed in front of the duo.
She took a pair of chopsticks, and then handed one to Kiba, facing him with innocence in her eyes, "Really?"
"It's not those wolves is it?" he asked, taking it from her. "You said you didn't get hurt."
"I didn't," she reassured him. "But... I was so scared." She stared at her reflection in the soup, before it quivered out of place. Her eyes slid across the counter to see Kiba's fist planted firmly on it, "OK, Jade. I'm not buying this anymore. I wanna know everything."
"Kiba, I already told you-."
"Everything."
She sighed, resting her chin in her palm, and then extending her hand to give Akamaru a pat on the head, "Well, we finished our mission and we were just heading home when we bumped into Kitai And I guess her and Kakashi have fought in the past or something, because they seemed to recognize each other right off the bat. Anyway, she had a pack of wolves with her."
"Yeah, and?"
She put her hand down, turning her head to face Kiba, "She told us she and her wolves hadn't eaten in a while..."
His eyes widened slightly, "...And?"
"So she attacked us," she said plainly. "Kitai went after Kakashi, and the wolves came at Naruto, Sasuke and I. Except... I froze up. I was scared."
Kiba's face softened, "Then what? Those jerks protected you, right?"
Her eyes glinted at the chosen titles, "Those jerks are my teammates, Kiba..."
"Sorry."
She looked back into her bowl, gathering some noodles with her chopsticks, "I despise my own weakness."
Kiba frowned, "Jade-chan... You're not weak."
She ignored this, "Naruto managed to get me out of the way, but I just wouldn't move!" She shook her head at herself, "Sasuke was holding off all those wolves himself, while I was cowering on the sidelines and holding Naruto back!"
Akamaru whimpered, rubbing against her forearm in a comforting effort, as she continued, "In the end Naruto...he punched me." She heard Kiba growl from beside her, and she could sense his muscles tightening. He'd always been pretty protective of her - wishing her a safe journey on any mission, no matter the size or difficulty.
"But I'm glad he did," she said before he could say anything. "I guess fear only holds you back from moving forward. Right?"
"Right."
"And that's it," she said simply. "I'm not hurt or anything. I told you that, already. You don't have to worry about me. Let's just eat!" She began to eat up her meal, as Kiba just smiled.
"Yeah, you're right."
"But hey, you wouldn't wanna watch the sunset with me later. Would you?" she asked, wiping her mouth.
"No, I would."
oOo
"I guess this is what they mean by simple pleasures, huh?" Jade asked quietly, sitting on a hill that evening with Kiba - as the sun slowly disappeared behind the horizon. The sky was contrasting with shades of orange, yellow and red - soft pinks and purples seeping through.
"Yeah," he agreed, Akamaru napping by his feet.
She closed her eyes, letting a warm breeze drift past her face, "I love sunsets... They're my favorite part of the day..."
"They kinda remind me of you..." Kiba said quietly, as Jade cracked an eye open - her cheeks crimson. At the lack of a response, he quietly added, "...sunsets, I mean."
"Yeah, I know..." she swallowed, turning to take a glimpse at the dog-like boy - his sun-kissed skin tone glowing with the disappearing light.
"You sure are something, Jade," he said, his eyes set on the disappearing ball of fire. "I just... want you to know that."
She tilted her head at him, "Where'd that come from?"
He blinked, looking her way, "I..." he chuckled. "I don't know... It's just something I thought I oughta let you know..."
She just smiled, "OK. Then...you're something too, Kiba..." Like she had done, he tilted his head at her. She winked, "Just...something I thought I'd let you know..."
He grinned, a faint laugh escaping from him as the two looked back to the setting sun.
"It's really pretty, huh?"
"Yeah," he agreed. "It sure is..."
Translations:
Kasaan: Mom/Mother
A/N: YAY! Second chapter - and Kiba! So... I don't really have much to say... Other then that I hoped you enjoyed it! And please review~! ^_^